For purposes of indicating marketing parameters, e.g., belt manufacturer, price, size and the like, the conventional practice prior to the improvement set forth in the '750 patent application was to use a so-called "swift tag" involving a plastic filament which is passed through an opening in a tag bearing the marketing parameters and through one of the prong receiving openings of the belt blank and then secured at filament ends to remain with the belt until the filament is cut apart at checkout.
The swift tags with plastic filament have tendencies, as discussed in the '750 patent application, where belts are hung adjacently, to snag with adjacent belt counterparts undermining the display effort. Also, where the swift tags are applied at the point of belt making, they tend undesirably, to become entangled with one another in the course of packaging, shipping and unpacking.
The '750 patent application provides a method for use in belt making wherein a marketing indicator is secured with the belt at the time of the assembly of the belt blank and the belt buckle.
More particularly, in making belts having buckles of the type having a prong pivotally supported by an arm of the buckle frame, following the step of applying a belt-retaining loop member to the belt blank and buckle disposed therewith, a portion of a marketing indicator is applied to the undersurface of the belt blank, interiorly of the boundary of the subsequent stitching, thereby to be secured with the stitched assembly.
When the stitching is performed, as is customary, in an inverted disposition of the belt blank, the '750 practice looks to retentive application of the marketing indicator to the undersurface of the belt blank. To this end, the portion of the indicator which is disposed interiorly of the stitching, or at least a part of such portion, has an adhesive backing applied thereto for securement thereof to the belt blank. Accordingly, upon inversion of the belt blank, the indicator remains with the belt blank, without assembler assistance.
While the member attached with the heretofore known belt assembly has above been referred to as itself a marketing indicator, it is more often the case that marketing information is not assigned or known at the point of belt making, but is to be assigned at a subsequent juncture. To accommodate such situation, the '750 method contemplates that the attached member be a blank which is receptive to a subsequently applied marketing indicator, desirably having an adhesive backing for retentive application to the blank and sized to be within the borders of the exposed area of the blank, i.e. that area not within the stitching.
In a still further aspect, the '750 practice affords improved removability of belt marketing indicators. Thus, it will be appreciated that the belt stitching which secures the assembly imparts perforations to the marketing indicator facilitating its removal by tearing across the line of perforations.
In commercially implementing the '750 practice, applicants have provided the marketing indicators individually successively on a reel which is rotatably supported adjacent a belt assembler's work station, such that the assembler may take an individual indicator from the reel and apply the indicator to the belt blank.
It is customary in the belt industry to coil belts for shipping, i.e., to wind the belt into a spiral configuration, with the belt buckle nested interiorly of the spiral. The spiral typically encompasses a plurality of belts, one coiled about its predecessor in the plurality.
While the described marketing indicator and practice have enjoyed commercial success, a nominal shortcoming of the '750 practice in this respect is that the coiling of belts imparts curvature to the marketing indicators and the curvature sets in the indicators and is at hand in the final assembled belt and indicator when the belt is uncoiled for display, i.e., the free end of the indicator becomes displaced outwardly of the belt blank, to be in potential interference with an adjacently-hung belt in retail establishments and to be aesthetically undesirable.